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House of Hafidh - To file in L.A., to die in Iraq
Got out to Los Angeles to Gartner Conf on Application Development and covered with Rich Seeley in a series of news briefs, with other stuff to follow. California was on one level chugging along with people driving on the freeways and boulevards to jobs - me, in an SUV of all things, one of them - though, while the S.Cal. Economy is edging up faster than S.F. in north, the chugging included less aeronautics jobs than in past.
Talked about the old aeronautics days with Sam E., who recalled the time when most of the neighbors on Summit, like Sam E. Sr., worked for Lockheed. Mexican Reilly, and Chester Reilly and his buddy coming home with lunch boxes together, and then working on the yard. These days are gone. The long flat Boeing-style plants are for rent with parking lots tumbleweeded.
On another level it's all about the Recall. News stories before and after the Appeals Court decision to stage the election. News stories before and after the candidates' debate. Can't wrap my head about it, as they say these days. Jay Leno had 90 candidates in his audience on Tuesday evening.
On L.A. trip was touched by much. One thing that touched me was the death of L.A. Times reporter Mark Fineman on Tuesday Sept 23, 2003. Covering the military police action in Iraq, he felt a chest pain, and then died of a heart attack, apparently engaging sources in conversation til about the end. With Rose of Sharon upon us, let us picture that he moved on up a little higher in the cosmic order. Read more
Going on also was a minibrouhaha concerning a Sacramento Bee writer whose weblog on the recall was called in for an edit by editors. Apparently web denizens feel an edited blog is no blog at all. Kind of recalls Tom Leher's satyr's take on folk music: "It sounds more ethnic if it aint good English." Trust me: This weblog would be like better spelled if I could affourd and editor.
A high point of the trip was excursion to Clifton's Cafeteria on Broadway [or Olive?]. Every trip needs a port in a storm. After flying cross country (via Milwaukee) with only planefare snack and getting to L.A. Biltmore, and then wondering on to strange Exile on Main St St scene [knockoffs on parade, Guadalupe Madonna and Merc t-shirts, 'wanta buy a cane?' ], to find this lovely western style place with inexpensive ($10 for five courses) but beautiful cafeteria meal [many-colored cold bean [red, with corn and scallions] salad, pears trapped in green jello, tamale, coca-cola, house salad] was great!
At Clifton's they buy the finest quality ingredients, and use time tested recipes. "Ala carte pricing allows you to customize your meal to satisfy you own personal taste." Eight different vegetables everyday may include, Spinach, peas, carrots, corn, zucchini, candied yams, baked squash, black eyed peas, sauteéd mushrooms, fried eggplant and of course, whipped potatoes, and famous macaroni and cheese.
Clifton's includes great dioramas and panoramas of the West. The Golden Gate and the rest. A 25-cent bucking horse ride with Chicano kiddies holding on in glee took me back to my youte.
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Tonight begins a PBS series on Blues.* It certainly has brought renewed attention to the form. I look especially forward to Clint Eastwood's take on piano blues, my original area of research, and Wim Wendors because 1-he's been into this forever, 2-Buena Vista Social Club was terrific, and 3-he's featuring J.B. Lenoir who is too unknown as of this morning.
*Actually, last night - my posting delayed again by some hacker's mucking worm.
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Clifton's Cafeteria Salad Bar
Price Range: .87¢-$1.40
Engineer's Effort to Assess Shuttle Damage - NYT, Sept 26, 2003
Arctic ice shelf splits - BBC Sept 23, 2003
Open Investment in Iraq - LATimes, Sept 23, 2003 [reg req]
Mark Fineman, 51 - LATimes, Sept 24, 2003
Bee blog buzz - LATimes, Sept 24, 2003
also:
NYTimes 'The Blues' Forum
PBS The Blues
History of Cliftons
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